Storm Harvey strikes again
After pouring record rains on Texas, Tropical Storm Harvey made a second landfall yesterday to strike Louisiana, a state that still bears deep scars from 2005's Hurricane Katrina.
The second hit comes five days after the monster storm slammed onshore as a Category Four hurricane, pummeling the US Gulf coast with torrential rains that turned neighborhoods into lakes in America's fourth largest city, Houston.
Harvey made its second landfall just west of the town of Cameron, the National Hurricane Center said, with "flooding rains" drenching parts of southeastern Texas and neighboring southwestern Louisiana. Forecasters expect Harvey will gradually weaken to a tropical depression by yesterday night, meaning maximum sustained winds should slow.
In Texas emergency crews were still struggling to reach hundreds of stranded people in a massive round-the-clock rescue operation -- but the National Weather Service tweeted that weather conditions there were to at last improve.
Houstonians woke up yesterday from a nighttime curfew declared by Mayor Sylvester Turner aimed at aiding search efforts and thwarting potential looting in the flood-ravaged city.
US media reports indicated the death toll could have risen to 30, and authorities feared confirming more once the worst had past and search teams could again travel roads.
The National Weather Service tweeted Harvey appears to have broken a US record for most rain from a single tropical cyclone, with nearly 52 inches recorded in the town of Cedar Bayou.
Harvey was previously known to have left at least three people dead, with six more fatalities potentially tied to the storm.
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